Peachtree

City attorneys have rendered an opinion concerning

conflict of interest that could affect whoever is elected

to the City Council in the upcoming runoff.

Two of the

candidates in this week's election, Melvin Ewing in Post

1 and Bruce Perlman in Post 2, have been working for the

city for some time, according to records obtained at City

Hall. While this is no problem for them as private

citizens, it could be a big problem if it were done by a

sitting councilman.

Upon review

of the city's ethics code, city attorneys have

specifically cited Section 62-80 of the municipal code,

which says:

"No

official or employee who, in his capacity as such

official or employee, participates in the making of a

contract in which he has a private pecuniary interest,

direct or indirect, or performs in regard to that

contract some function requiring the exercise of

discretion on his part, shall enter into any contract

with the city unless:

(1) the

contract is awarded through a process of public notice

and competitive bidding; or

(2) the

city attorney waives the requirement of this section

after determining it is in the best interest of the city

to do so."

The written

statement to the city from attorney Stephen Ott of Webb,

Stuckey and Lindsey went on to state: "This section

makes it clear that no official or employee of Peachtree

City can participate in the making of a contract with the

city in which he will gain monetarily unless one of the

two conditions are met. If a contract is to be awarded

through a process of public notice and competitive

bidding, the city official or employee should not

participate in the process of awarding the contract nor

should the official vote on the awarding of the

contract."

Ott also

cited state law from the Code of Ethics for Government

Service, which states: "Any person in government

service should... engage in no business with the

government, either directly or indirectly, which is

inconsistent with the conscientious performance of his

governmental duties..." Ott said that the state

standard, in his opinion, is lower than the city

standard, and the city should follow its own ordinance.

Ewing is an

engineer whose company has done or is now under contract

for consulting work on various public works projects

since 1996, including Holly Grove Church Road, the

Wynnmeade connector, the Hip Pocket cart path, and sports

field maintenance buildings.

According

to city financial records, Ewing's company has received

about $33,500 for his work during that time.

Ewing told

The Citizen recently that he did not see a conflict of

interest while campaigning, but if had won, he would

certainly have severed any business ties with the city.

Perlman is

a physician with offices in Peachtree City and has been

the regular provider of physicals and drug tests for city

employees for several years.

His office,

Peachtree Internal Medical Associates, also handles

workers' compensation claims involving city employees.

According

to records provided by the city, Peachtree Internal

Medical Associates has done $10,855 worth of workman's

compensation cases for city employees during the past ten

years, dating back to Jan. 1, 1990.

Other

records for drug screening and physicals involving city

employees show payments to Peachtree Internal Medical

Associates totalling $69,744.06 since 1992.

The other

two Post 2 candidates, Dan Tennant and Chuck Lehman, both

said that they have never done any business with the

city.

Annie

McMenamin, the incumbent in Post 1, is not involved in

city business personally, but she has pointed out that

she has family connections through Webb, Stuckey and

Lindsey and the police department that she watches

carefully to make sure she does not enter into a

conflict-of-interest situation.